CBT

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Oh, and ow, I'm sorry to hear that. You're keeping such a calm positive attitude! I admire that, though I couldn't do it.

The Tylenol and Advil I'm taking has helped matters considerably.

Nice metaphor for how both the drug and the optimism to take the drug worked together to help.

I on the other hand have seen no point taking either for my sore throat as I don't think they'd help (humor intended).....

My understanding of depression is that it is not curable. You can reduce the impact and you can go for long stretches of time without it, but it's a bit like having cancer in remission or being an alcoholic "on the wagon" -- the "black dog" can always come back. The best you can do is make it a toy poodle instead of a rottweiler. Claims to "cure" are deceptive and should not be believed without confirmation from longitudinal studies. I don't believe there is evidence on which to base a conclusion that CBT has any ability to "cure" depression.


I agree and this is chilling.

An issue I see with CBT for mild depression due to job hunting woes is that it pathologises a normal emotion. Negative emotions are normal and healthy in response to bad situations. If it's actually challenging thought patterns such as "I'll never find a job" "there's nothing I can do" and "I'm useless", then I can see it being useful, but it will be less useful if the approach taken is "your faulty thought patterns are the only thing stopping you from finding a job".

You have to take positive steps to get a job--especially these days. Negative thoughts have a way of "disinspiring" people from making the effort. Then it becomes a cycle...then the Blame Game starts.....

This is true, but.. For a government that has pursued policies that will create tens of thousands of job losses, to push this seems a little cynical, at best.

But....despite what the government did, it's not impossible to get a job.

I was able to get a job during an equally bad economic time: the early 1980s. I guess the difference, really, is that it takes longer to get hired onto a job these days--more interviews!

If you give up on getting a job, the game is lost.

I don't see cynicism in what I advocate. Maybe there's a little "impracticality."

But one cannot give up, despite what the government did or didn't do.

No offense, but I'm sure that most people do know that to get jobs, you have to go out and apply for them. The discouragement sets in after countless rejections, and when the people who are being paid to help you won't give you any advice other than "try applying for jobs!".

I suppose.....but there's no other way in most cases.

These days, EVERYBODY gets rejected. I wish I knew how to be more "artful" in how NOT to get a resume thrown away. Where I work, about 200 people applied for two places.

It's not always like that...but it could be like that.

When I was looking for my second job, my resume was thrown in the trash heap consistently for months. Then, about six months after I started looking, out of the blue, someone called. I got the job the same day. It could happen like that sometimes. You have to take these opportunities.

I got my first job because I was fortunate enough to know somebody who reads the New York Times every day. She saw an ad. She was nice enough to recommend it to me. I almost didn't go (I was friggin' scared!! !! !) But I went--and I got the job! It turned out to be a Civil Service job! I got lucky! I'm still at this job today. The interview happened on October 30th, 1980. I started November 3rd.

To me, getting a job is a matter of luck--being in the "right place at the right time." If you are discouraged from looking because of rejections, you don't place yourself in the position to be at "the right place at the right time."

If I should lose my job, I'd be out on the street (that's my fault--I don't have enough savings).